Non-League players star in UK six-a-side championships

NON-LEAGUE players were among the almost 2,000 footballers who participated in the recent UK six-a-side championships.

The tournament was held in Birmingham and saw Milton Keynes crowned UK champions while the Wales came out on top in the Home Nations.

The Milton Keynes side’s core comes from Non-League with Dan Delderfield, Lewis Hallford and Saajan Sehajpal all playing for United Counties League Division One side Buckingham Town.

On their way to the final, where they beat Edgware on penalties, they knocked out last year’s winners Enfield who had England six-a-side captain and Harrow Borough player Ben Long in their ranks.

The Welsh six-a-side team were named Home Nations winners

Attentions then turned to the Home Nations part of the day in which the Welsh side beat England and drew with Scotland to be named winners.

In the England side were former Arsenal, Grays Athletic, Weymouth and Woking man Paolo Vernazza, AFC Telford’s Danny O’Callaghan, ex-Aylesbury man Sam Kanani and Hendon coach Scott Cousins.

UK Minifootball spokesman Andy Thorley said: “We were pleased with how the day went. There were 257 teams confirmed for the event. Players aren’t registered, but we would expect this to be just under 2000 players.

“We are finding that six-a-side is becoming ever more popular. As you know the 11-a-side game is losing players and we are seeing that those players are coming to play in six-a-side tournaments.

“The miniEURO – the European six-a-side Championships – is the pinnacle of what we do and is becoming ever bigger too, this year there are 32 teams playing, which is an increase of eight on the year before.”